Yes you can, at your expense. If you’re employer tells you that you’re not permitted to this they are giving you totally wrong information. The insurance company only gets to direct your medical care if they formally accept the claim. That means they’ve filed a Form 60 with the Industrial Commission.

Be warned, however, that the Industrial Commission often pays little attention to what your family doctor has to say. The idea is that the doctor may go out of his way to take your side in a dispute. That probably does occur sometimes but not as often as the state legislature thinks and, in our experience, far less often than company doctors who defer to the interests of an employer. But if your family doctor will make a referral to an orthopedist when the employer will only send you to Urgent Care it may be in your interests to go that route. Call us and we’ll push the Industrial Commission to get you reimbursed.

In particular it can make a lot of sense to see your own doctor and put it on your health insurance if your employer and their adjuster are dragging their feet on sending you to a doctor.

Under the laws currently in effect, the answer is “yes.” We agree with you that there certainly appears to be a cozy relationship between an employer and a doctor who gets a substantial amount of business (in the form of a constant and steady supply of patients) from that employer. In a lot of settings this would be an unacceptable conflict of interest. Despite this, the current laws permit it.

You probably don’t have to worry that the company doctor is going to ignore your medical condition just for the fun and profit of your employer. But you should be aware that the doctor may have an agreement in place with your employer not to remove anyone from work or that they will answer any questions the employer may have “off the record.” We’ve seen instances when company doctors require injured workers to waive any and all confidentiality rights in order to be seen. However, both of these occur with other doctors who treat a lot of workers’ compensation claimants even when there is no formal relationship with an employer or insurance company.